I’m Lina, I’m twenty years old, and I’m in my last year of design school. My friends constantly think I appear older than I am, maybe because I’ve lived alone with my strong and determined mother since I was a child. My father died when I was young, and my mother never married again. She worked hard all these years to raise me.
I met Santiago, the head of the logistics team, while I was volunteering in Guadalajara. He was more than twenty years older than me. He was kind and quiet and spoke with a depth that startled me. At first, I just liked him as a coworker, but as time went on, my heart started to race every time I heard his voice.
Santiago had been through a lot. He worked steadily and had a broken marriage, but he didn’t have any kids. He didn’t say anything about his past; all he said was
“I lost something really important. I just want to live a truthful life now.
There were no scandals or drama in our love story. It evolved slowly. He always treated me with care, like he was protecting something weak. I heard others say things like, “How can a twenty-year-old girl fall in love with a man who is more than twenty years older?” but I didn’t care. I felt at peace with him.
Santiago
“I want to see your mom. I don’t want to keep anything from you anymore.
I felt a knot in my stomach. My mom was strict and often worried, but I felt, “If this is true love, I have nothing to worry about.”
I took him home that day. Santiago had on a white shirt and was holding a bouquet of marigolds, which I had informed him my mom adored. As we walked past the old gate of our house in Tlaquepaque, I clutched his hand. When my mother saw us, she was watering the plants.
And
Before I could introduce them, she came up to him and hugged him hard, crying.
“Dear God… You are the one!” she cried, recognizing Santiago.” “
The air got thick. I stood there, paralyzed and confused. My mom kept hugging him and crying and shaking. Santiago looked shocked, as if he couldn’t believe what he was seeing.
“Are you… Thalía?” “He spoke in a raspy voice.
My mom raised her head and swiftly nodded.
“Yes, it’s you!” Oh my God, you’re still living after more than twenty years!
I could feel my heart racing.
“Mom, do you know Santiago?”
Both of them looked at me. Neither of them said anything for a few seconds. Then my mom sat down and wiped her eyes.
“Lina… I have to be honest with you. I adored a man named Santiago when I was young, and this is him.
The room was quiet. I looked at Santiago. His face was pale and puzzled. My mom kept talking, her voice shaking:
“When I was going to technical school in Guadalajara, he had just graduated from college. My grandparents didn’t like him since they thought he had no future. Then Santiago had an accident, and we couldn’t get in touch with him anymore. “I thought he was dead…”
Santiago sighed and shook his hands.
“I never forgot about you, Thalía. I was very far away when I woke up in the hospital, and I couldn’t get to you. I came back, but I found out you already had a daughter, so I didn’t dare to talk to you.
Things started to fall apart in my world. Every syllable hurt more.
“So… my daughter…” he said with a gulp.
My mother glanced at me, and her voice broke:
“You are Santiago’s daughter, Lina.”
There was no sound. The only sound in the garden was the wind. Santiago moved back, his eyes burning and his arms hanging uselessly at his sides.
“No… He murmured, “It can’t be…” “I didn’t… I never thought…
Everything in my life fell apart.
My father was the man I loved and thought was my destiny.
My mom cried and hugged me.
“I’m sorry…” I never thought…
I didn’t say anything. I let the tears fall; they were salty and bitter like fate.
We three sat together for a long time that day.
It wasn’t a meeting of boyfriends anymore; it was a reunion of souls that had been missing for more than twenty years.
And I, a daughter who had found her father and lost her first love, could only sit in silence and let the tears fall.
